


Spiritual Guide

by Gardian



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Ghost Hunter AU, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Kid Lance (Voltron), Langst, Other, Space Dad Shiro (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-05-30 10:58:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15095285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gardian/pseuds/Gardian
Summary: Lance was born able to hear and see ghosts, Shiro is a ghost hunter that adopts Lance to use him to fight ghosts. Some point Lance becomes more then a weapon he becomes his son, and when the Prince of Ghosts have his son Shiro will do anything to keep him safe. Even if it dooms the rest of the world.





	Spiritual Guide

“Hush little baby, mamas here.”  
Lance shivered holding his hands over his mouth as to keep his screams from escaping not wanting to wake up the whole house…  
Again.  
He looked over his shoulder with tear filled eyes at his mother smiling down at him stroking his hair.  
Laura McClain was a beautiful woman, long brown hair framing a sweet gentle smile and ocean blue eyes. She wasn't as skinny as her son, but still carrying a little bit of a tummy from when she had lance ten years ago.  
Laura McClain was a wonderful woman and the best mother a son could ever ask for.  
But as of last month Laura McClain was dead and buried.  
Since the accident that took his mother from him Lance has been living in a children's home, during the day he would sit by himself, hugging his cuddly lion affectionately named Blue after the colour of the felt used to make her; and would mumbled to himself.  
Or at least that's what everyone thought.  
Ever since his mother died she had been following him.  
She would talk to him during the day, and try to comfort him in the night.  
In the light it wasn't so bad because she looked like his mama at least, she looked exactly like she did before getting in the car blowing him a kiss as she drove off.  
During the first day Lance would talk to her like she had never left and was happy she was still here. However after the first night those happy hope filled conversations quickly turned into desperate mumblings asking her to leave him alone.  
Because Lance has seen what she really was.  
Its when the lights are off that Laura McClain shows her true form.  
Lance looked up at her pale skin that hung off her bones in uneven clumps like she was made of melting wax ready to drop.  
Her eyes were still there but one hung from its socket and would swing from side to side sometimes getting dangerously close to touching Lance where he lay.  
Her teeth were all broken into jagged points, monstrously elongated sticking through her top lip dripping blood over his spider man duvet soaking through so he had to spend every night in the uncomfortable wetness.  
The fingers she ran through his hair were nothing more then bleached white bones clicking with every movement.  
That's how Lance knew she was coming for him at night.  
Curled up in the bed facing the wall, eyes scrunched up tight. He would hear it.  
‘Click’  
‘Click’  
‘Click’  
Getting steadily closer until he felt her mutilated lips brush by his ear always repeating the same words all night every night;  
“Hush little baby, mamas here.”

The first few times Lance had screamed so loud every adult in the house to came running towards his room.   
He tried to tell them what had happened but they dismissed it as a bad dream.  
Lance tried to nod along, to believe them.  
But watching his mama standing behind them; smiling at him even with the lights on and his heart beating too fast for him to be asleep, Lance knew this wasn't a dream.

So tonight like every night he bit his lip as silent tears ran down his cheeks begging for someone anyone to help him.   
“Get away from him!”  
Lance jumped but didn't dare turn to look to see who the voice belonged to, he could hear the familiar sound of Mama clicking as she moved, but this time it was faster more frantic like she was running from something.  
He heard a strangled cry as the room filled with a strong purple light before returning to darkness.  
Lance didn't dare breath as he felt a hand on his shoulder, expecting it to fill him with the familiar sense of cold dread that seemed to drain the strength from his very soul, the feeling that came whenever Mama touched him.  
However this was different.  
It was warm and comforting offering a kind of reassurance Lance hadn't felt since before his only family died.  
“Are you ok kiddo?”  
Slowly, very slowly Lance turned to see who it was.  
The man smiled at him with a gentle face that made Lance’s heart hurt.  
He looked to be about his mid twenties with a long scar across his nose and a black glove over only one hand which Lance thought was kinda weird.  
He was dressed in all black, with matching cargo pants and hoodie, large boots with shiny metal toes reflected the light from the small flashlight he held in his ungloved hand.  
Lance looked round the room seeing no sign of his Mama and the tears began to fall freely.  
A look of panic crossed the man's face, clearly having never dealt with a sobbing child before.  
Acting on instinct he pulled Lance close in a hug making shushing noises into his hair.   
“It's ok now buddy, i know something was making you feel like you were being watched, but it's gone now i promise.”  
“Is she really gone?”  
The man stiffened before he let go of the boy to look him in the eye “how did you know it was a she?”  
Lance looked down at his hands as if he was being scolded “she was my Mama…”  
A gasp escaped the man's lips before he could stop it “Are you telling me you could see it- i mean her?”  
When Lance nodded the man's eyes went wide.  
“I always heard her coming before i saw her, she looked like my mama during the day. B-but at night she… she.”  
Lance began to cry again and the man rubbed soothing circles on his back.  
“So you could hear her as well?”  
Again lance nodded rubbing the heels of his hands into his eyes “i'm not crazy, i heard what the social workers say about me... they think i'm crazy and should be locked away so i don't upset the other kids. But i know what i saw was real!”  
Lance was expecting to be told off for talking like that, it wouldn't of been the first time.  
“I don't think you're crazy, in fact i think you're very, very special.”  
Lance looked up at him in surprise.  
“Special?”  
The man chuckled “yeah, you're like me. You can see things no one else can. But your even more special then i am because no one has ever been able to hear a roaming spirit.” The man made a big show of looking around the room “do you want to know what my job is? I fight ghosts.”  
Lance listened with wide eyes leaning forwards intently, clearly interested.  
“It's my job to keep the world from the things that go bump in the night.”  
“D-do you think i could do that too?”  
The man smiled placing a hand on his shoulder “maybe one day.”   
A large grin spread across Lance’s face, maybe was as good as a yes to him!  
The man looked down at his watch and frowned “Sorry kiddo i've got to go.”  
He stood up and headed towards the window Lance hadn't realised was open until that moment.  
“Wait!” Lance practically yelled “My names Lance, what's yours?”  
The man hesitated by the window for a moment before he turned and gave him a large smile “I'm Shiro.”

Lance expected that to be the last time he ever saw Shiro almost convincing himself it had all been a dream after only a couple weeks had passed.  
That was until one day when he was sitting in the day room and one of the social workers came in to say he had a visitor.  
When Lance made it to the front office he had been expecting to see one of his old school friends that had finally worked up the nerve to come visit him since from before the funeral.  
However rather than another skinny ten year old, there stood a tall, muscular twenty something year old wearing a white button down with light blue jeans. He seemed pretty uncomfortable as he shifted from foot to foot under the glare of the women sitting behind the reception desk.  
As soon as he spotted him Lance went running and hugged his knees yelling “Shiro!”  
“Hey kiddo, sorry i took so long.” Shiro chuckled and bent down to pick him up as he shot a smug look at the worker behind the desk “I told you he would recognise his uncle Shiro.”  
The woman stiffened looking down at the pile of documents in her hands “I'm sorry sir, we’ll just finish up your paperwork so why don't you get Lance ready to leave?”  
“Leave?” Lance asked choosing not to question why this woman thought Shiro was his uncle.  
Shiro smiled as he swung Lance round so he was sitting on his shoulders “Yep! Soon as i heard what happened i got the paperwork sorted out.”  
Shiro chuckled at the confused expression on Lance’s face “I'm adopting you.”  
Lance’s face lit up. He was so excited that he didn't really pay attention as the final checks were made or as they packed up his few possessions ready to leave for their new life.

It had been seven years since Shrio adopted Lance.  
In those seven years they never really settled anywhere, always moving always hunting.  
Over that time Shiro taught Lance how to look after himself, how to fight the things that go bump in the night and most importantly how to scare the ghosts that once tormented him.

“Casper three o'clock!” Lance yelled causing Shiro to spin round and send a blast of energy from his glowing purple hand, annihilating said ghost instantly.  
“Thanks partner.” Shiro watched as Lance smirked proudly resting his salt filled sawn off shotgun on his shoulder.  
“What would you do without me?”  
“Probably go back to getting thrown around again.”  
Ever since Shiro found out that Lance had the ability to not only see ghosts but also hear them, he knew he had to recruit the kid.  
When he first forged the documents that allowed him to adopt Lance, Shiro wanted to make him a soldier, a tool that would tell him where and when the ghosts would attack.  
Shiro had never expected that the kid would grow on him, he never expected that after all this time he just couldn't imagine doing this job without him, and not just because Shiro's own spiritual sight barely let him see a hazy outline of the ghosts they hunted.  
Lance may be the most powerful seer that Shiro has ever met but first and foremost Lance was his friend.  
“Rooms clear, well other than the floating bits that voodoo hand of yours left.” Lance wrinkled his nose as he flicked an invisible speck of ghost guts off his jacket.  
“Its Chi not voodoo” Shiro rolled his eyes.  
“Whatever, at least voodoo doesn't sound like some kind of hipster tea.”   
Shiro opened his mouth to say something when suddenly out of the corner of his eye a dull purple haze solidified and surged towards Lance.  
Before Shiro could so much as call his name the ghost was forcing itself down Lance’s throat.  
He dropped to his knees, screaming in agony as the spirit took over his body.  
Shiro ran to him powering up his hand and tried to grab the ghost that was rapidly pouring into his partner.  
However the purple spirit slipped through his fingers and Lance’s body went slack.  
“Lance?”   
Shiro cradled his limp body, desperately calling out to him; hoping to get through to him no matter how much of a long shot it was.  
However when he opened his eyes and rather than blue they were a dark purple Shiro knew it wasn't Lance.  
He began to struggle in Shiro's arms, Lance needed to be exorcised and to do that Shiro couldn’t let him get away.  
It hurt him to do this but Shiro punched him square across the face knocking him out.

Shiro paced back and forth as he looked over at Lance.  
He was slumped forwards against the thick ropes, tying him to a chair.  
Slowly Lance opened his eyes, looking around the room before finally coming to a stop on him.   
They were still that dark unnatural shade of purple and Shiro had to remind himself that this wasn't Lance, this was a ghost possessing him.  
A ghost that needed to be exorcised.  
Shiro cleared his throat as he grabbed a Bible off a nearby table glad he had remembered to pack it with the rest of their hunting equipment.  
Suddenly a laugh echoed around the room in the abandoned apartment building.  
“I wouldn't do that if i were you.”  
A shiver ran down Shiro’s spine, the voice both belonged to Lance and didn't at the same time, it was laced with an unsettling humming; crackling just under the surface.  
Shiro knew he shouldn't answer.  
He should just start the exorcism and get his partner back.  
However for some reason he found himself closing the book “and why would that be?”  
“Because my followers will here for me soon, they will kill you and then i shall open the Gates of Hell.”  
A jolt of terror went through Shiro.   
When he was a kid his dad told him a story that the Gates of Hell could be closed forever by one that could see and hear the dead, but it would cost them their life.  
When he had first met that little kid all those years ago, Shiro had considered using him to do that very thing, but soon as Lance looked up at him like he was the only thing that mattered to him in the world then he knew that he would never let Lance die for the cause.  
But until this moment Shiro never considered that Lance could be used to open the Gates, permanently…  
“I won't let you do that.” Shiro growled.  
Lance chuckled “Oh it's cute that you think you have a choice.” he snapped his fingers and the windows shattered.  
The last thing Shiro saw was Lance standing up before everything went dark.

“My prince, the time is drawing near.”  
“Yes thank you Haggar, is the sacrifice ready?”  
Shiro felt a sharp stab in his ribs pulling his away from blissful unconsciousness.  
“Yes, my prince.”  
Shiro groaned as he slowly opened his eyes and immediately closed them again, unable to stand the burning light.  
Judging from the cool breeze and muffled sounds of traffic they were on the roof of the building him and Lance had been hunting in.   
He began to wonder how long he had been out, because he was sure that last he checked it was the middle of the night.  
It was so painfully bright that even now with his eyes scrunched up Shiro could still see the purple glow.  
The glow like his hand.  
Forcing his eyes open Shiro looked down only to feel bile rise up his throat.  
His arm was gone.  
It looked like it had been ripped off, lying at his feet like a toy forgotten by a child.   
Rather than blood dripping from the open wound only a bright purple substance like that of his hand when he infused it with his ghost killing chi, dripping into a puddle on the floor.  
Without his arm Shiro couldn't fight ghosts.  
He was unarmed.  
Literally.  
Fortunately there was no pain, Shiro didn't know if it was due to adrenaline or his powers.  
Either way he was thankful he didn't feel it.  
“Finally awake i see?”  
Shiro looked up to see a woman with long white hair and purple eyes, Shiro knew she was possessed thanks to the unnatural eye colour.  
“Wheres Lance?” Shiro croaked his voice hoarse.   
Had he been screaming?   
He couldn't remember…  
He looked around finding himself chained up against a large rock that had no place on top of an apartment building. The chains went across his chest in a cross shape, firmly holding his arms and legs in place.  
Shiro looked up to where Lance was standing, hands on hips and a superior smirk on his lips.  
“Lance isn't in right now, you may address me as Prince of The Dead, or Lotor. If you prefer? “  
Shiro felt his heartbeat increase, great; Lance was possessed by the ghost equivalent of the anti-Christ…   
An exorcism wouldn't be enough to save him.  
He would need something beyond any power on earth.  
“Let him go, he's just a kid let him go!” Never before in his life has he ever begged before, but for Lance he would.  
For Lance he would do anything.  
“Oh we both know he is much more then ‘just a kid’ as you put it. The one born to hear and see the death shall have the power to shut the veil between the worlds or open the gates and bring upon the end of the world.” Lance or well Lotor smirked taking Shiro’s chin in his hand “but you knew that didn't you?”  
Shiro jerked his face away glaring at him, he wasn't going to be the first to break eye contact.  
“But i'm guessing you didn't know that a sacrifice is needed to darken the soul? Only with a corrupted soul can the gates be opened.”  
“Let me guess, i’m the sacrifice?”  
Lotor chuckled “smart one aren't you? Of course you weren't smart enough to save yourself, or your little partner either. Tell me how does it feel to know that because of you the world you know will be destroyed and remade in my image?”  
Shiro didn't answer.  
He just stared past him at Haggar as she scattered what looked like bones in a circle. He could see the outline of other ghosts gathered around the bones, their forms growing stronger with every passing moment.  
Haggar turned to them an unsettling smile on her face “It's time.”  
“Well this has been fun, but i have have my Father's work to do.”   
Shiro could only watch as Lotor pulled a long black knife out from thin air.  
Despite knowing it was useless Shiro still tried to struggle against the bonds holding him against the rock.  
“Good bye hunter”  
Lotor raised the knife high, it glittering from the light emanating from his arm, his eyes told Shiro he was aiming for his heart. Lotor winked bringing it down towards his chest.  
Shiro closed his eyes gritting his teeth in preparation for the pain.  
However it never came.  
“S-Shiro”  
His eyes snapped open, that was Lance’s voice.  
The real Lance.  
With the knife hovering only inches above his flesh, Lance’s hands shaking and sweat falling down his face.  
His eyes were flickering between blue and purple but it was definitely Lance in control.  
“Lance? Oh god Lance!” Shiro didn't want to hope, but seeing the boy he'd raised all these years fighting of the Prince of The Dead, he has never felt prouder.   
“You can do this, you're stronger than him, you're stronger then anyone i've ever met!” he cried.  
Tears began to fall down his cheek as he watched Lance stumble back fighting with everything he had to keep the knife away from Shiro.  
“It hurts, Shiro. He's in my head it hurts so much.” Lance sounded so scared that it was killing him inside that he couldn't do anything to keep Lance from this.   
To take this burden from him.  
“How dare you resist my prince!” Haggar yelled as she moved her hand forwards commanding the ghosts to surge towards Lance.  
However before they even got close he fell to his knees and a expansion of blue light came from his chest.  
Shiro closed his eyes, shielding them from the piercing light.  
When he opened them again the other ghosts were gone and Lance was lying on the ground, unmoving and deathly pale.  
“LANCE!” Shiro screamed, the chains disintegrating with a good tug.  
He ran forwards and with a shaking hand pulled Lance onto his lap.  
“Lance buddy? Come on kiddo answer me please?”  
“S...hiro?“  
Shiro could feel himself crying as Lance opened his eyes, no longer purple or even blue. Instead just a milky white.  
“Yeah Lance i'm here, it's ok everything will be fine i'll look after you.”  
“I did it…”  
Lance spoke so quietly Shiro almost didn't hear him…  
Or perhaps he didn't want to hear.  
“I closed the gate.”  
Terror gripped Shiro's heart.  
“No… no please! Tell me you didn't!” he was begging, begging for this to be a cruel joke.  
“He was going to kill you… i couldn't stop him any other way.” Lance’s voice was getting softer, even more strained by the second.  
“I'm not worth that much, you mean more to me then the entire world. You can't leave me please Lance please!”  
Lance trembled as he reached up and placed a gentle hand on Shiro’s cheek wiping away the tears with his thumb.  
“I'm really glad… i got to… hunt with you… Dad…”  
With that Lance’s hand fell to the ground and the unsteady rise and fall of his chest stopped completely.  
“Lance?”  
Shiro gave him a little shake not wanting it to be true.  
“LANCE? NO!” Shiro screamed pulling him close, hugging Lance with all his strength like that might bring him back to him. “Please… don’t leave me...”  
Like that might bring his son home to him.  
However even in a world of ghosts… you don't get to keep your loved one’s after they die.  
Shiro knew that Lance was gone, he had lost him so the world could live…  
No one but them would ever know his sacrifice.  
No one but Shiro could carry on his story and make sure his son didn't die to be forgotten.

**Author's Note:**

> Please comment


End file.
